College Hockey Update:  Last week featured only seven games played by top ten teams, and the big news has to be that Mankato State edged down to #3 on the full scale 2-7 demolition it suffered at the hands of St. Cloud State at the Mariucci Classic Tournament in Minneapolis Saturday night (Mankato went on to beat Bemidji State in the tournament the next night).  Elsewhere, Ohio State held at #6 after hosting and sweeping Colgate; Massachusetts held at #9 after their win at R.P.I.; and Minnesota-Duluth held at #10 after its win at Merrimack Sunday night (Duluth completed the sweep at Merrimack Monday night after the poll came out on Monday).  An idle North Dakota held at #1, idle Cornell edged up to #2; idle Clarkson held at #4; idle Boston College held at #5; idle Denver edged down to #7;  and idle Pennsylvania State held at #8.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

This week Minnesota-Duluth had huge help from sophomore forward Cole Koepke, of Hermantown, MN., who scored a goal and added an assist in his team’s 4-1 win Sunday, and scored a goal and added two assists in his team’s 5-1 win Monday, completing their sweep at Colgate.  The 6’1″ 195lb forward is second on his team in goals scored, with eight, and is tied for fourth in assists, with eight.  As a freshman, he tied for ninth on the team in goals, with nine, and he tied for eighth in assists, with twelve.  His hometown of Hermantown is also home to 9,700 residents spread among its thirty-four square miles, and sits at an elevation of 1,360 feet, immediately on the northwest border of Duluth.  So you know this is a legitimately frozen and icy place many months of the year, even though it is in the sunbelt of the state.

Sunday night Merrimack scored on a power play five minutes into the first to take the 1-0 lead, but Cole Keopke scored for Minnesota-Duluth to tie it at one apiece only three minutes later on a short handed goal; Duluth outshot Merrimack 16-1 in a period in which each team scored once.  In the second the action was closer to even, with UMD out-shooting Merrimack 16-12, but Kobe Roth scored the sole goal to give UMD the 2-1 lead at the second break.  In the third the action was a bit more even, with UMD out-shooting Merrimack 10-8, but Jackson Cates scored for UMD three minutes into the period on a power play opportunity to make it 3-1, and with three minutes left in the game a Justin Richards four-on-four goal (assist by Cole Koepke), made it 4-1, UMD, for the final score.  Monday was more of the same, as Cole Koepke scored at the end of the first for the 1-0 UMD lead, which was followed by another three unanswered goals in the second, to make it 4-0, UMD.  In the third Merrimack scored a goal, but so did UMD, for the final 5-1 win.

The University of Minnesota at Duluth was established in 1947 and has roots going back to 1902, originally as a teachers’ college.  It enrolls 9,200 undergraduates, 700 graduate students, and 1,300 other students on its 244 acre, fifty building campus.  UMD comprises eight schools and colleges and offers fourteen degrees in 85 majors, as well as twenty-six graduate programs.  1980 Olympic hockey players John Harrington and Mark Pavelich both played hockey at UMD, and both are credited with assists on Mike Eruzione’s winning goal against the Russians in those Olympics.  Brett Hull played for two years at UMD as well.  The UMD athletic teams are the Bulldogs, and the UMD Hockey head coach is Scott Sandelin, who is in his twentieth season there, with a 380-317-88 record to date.  Sandelin played college hockey at North Dakota.  His UMD teams have made nine NCAA Tournament appearances, four times in the final championship game, including all of the last three seasons, having won it all in 2011, and the last two seasons, 2018, and 2019.  Defending national champion UMD, 10-6-1, and ranked #10, plays next the weekend of January 10th, when they host #19 Western Michigan for two games.

Additional note:  Saturday night in Minneapolis, St. Cloud State freshman forward Zach Okabe, of Okotoks, ALB., scored a hat trick in the first twenty-two minutes of the game, before Mankato State even got on the board, and I’m not making any of that up — not the names, and not the stats!  But that wasn’t all.  In addition to his three unanswered goals, there was a fourth unanswered St. Cloud State goal before Mankato scored, and on top of that, Okabe came back to score his fourth of the game only seven minutes into the second!!  Now are you ready for this — he is tied for fourth on his team in goals scored, with . . . . four goals!  They might want to reconstruct what he ate and drank, and how much sleep he got, and when, in the three days prior to that game, and have him repeat it before every remaining game!

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE TIME TO REMEMBER CORNER

On December 14th, the life of another hockey great came to an end, at only the age of 75.  Doug Woog played three seasons at Minnesota (the NCAA maximum at that time) from 1963-66, where he scored 48 goals, and added 53 assists.  He was selected as a first team All-American, named team captain and named MVP in his senior year; he was also a member of the U.S. national team in 1967.  But that’s not all.  He went on to be the head coach at Minnesota from 1985-99, and his teams reached the NCAA tournament in each of his first twelve seasons (a record for the start of a career) posting six 30+ win seasons, winning five WCHA titles, three conference tournament titles and made the 1989 NCAA Tournament Final.  His teams had an average of nearly 28 wins per season over his fourteen years coaching at Minnesota!  Doug Woog succumbed to Parkinson’s but lived a great life of many accomplishments in a sport he truly loved.  He made a whole lot of people in Minnesota very happy hockey fans for many, many years.

This week features two top-ten matchups, with #2 Cornell facing #6 Ohio State in the opening round of the Fortress Invitational in Las Vegas Friday night, and with #7 Denver hosting #9 Massachusetts for two games Friday and Saturday.  Who wouldn’t want to be there for one of these three games?  Anyone going?  Anyone want to write a game summary for the next posting of CHU?

This provides the top ten teams, rankings, records, and last week’s results:

[table id=207 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom